Week 25

 Totally overestimated how much time I would need. On my timeline I had allotted time on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to deal with the garage sale pile. Um, two hours on Thursday! Relocated a few things from that corner, consolidated the garage sale stuff, and have a couple things set aside for the big trash pick-up coming up soon. I saved some boxes to help contain the garage sale pile. That corner will just seem a little messy until the sale in August. At any point it could just become the donation pile and disappear quickly.

Friday and Saturday freed up because the pile clean-up went faster than I expected. I started on the two bookshelves by first going through the things left on the shelves after moving Doc's books upstairs last summer. Shelves were dusted and pulled away from the wall for a good vacuuming. I then moved all the DVDs to one of the cases. We have a lot of entertainment there. The second case has my workout videos on the top, CDs on the next two shelves, and empty shelf and the bottom shelf will hold albums and special binders. I think I'll save the empty shelf for additional DVDs as I know the Murder, She Wrote case is still upstairs. The bottom shelf will get more items when I get to those things from other bookcases. 

I didn't get anything done on Saturday as Doc was in there exercising all morning. Didn't want to kick up the dust. For the cases on the window side of the room, I won't have to empty the shelves, dust and return the items as one case is empty. I'll be able to clean the shelves and then shuffle things over, then clean the next case and shuffle things over. The advantage is on the third case I'll be closer to the counter where many books are residing. I won't have to walk very far to relocate those books to the shelves. That won't be the case for the bookcases on the other side of the room. 

So now I'm two weeks ahead on my timeline. Yay! This week I'll clean that bit of wall space in front of the window, take care of the things on the floor in front of the three bookcases and start on the bookcases. Depending how those things go, I might be able to clean up the area in front of the other window. Then I'll tackle the shelves on the other side. A little bit bigger job I think. I'll save the counter area for last.

Week 24

 Storage closet is done! It really wasn't that bad. I pulled everything out on Thursday and grouped things together, like all the empty shoeboxes. Put some things in the donation pile. Vacuumed and dusted the tops of the totes. Put back the things I know I'm keeping like keepsakes. On Friday I took care the bowling balls, flattened all the boxes, moved a box of binders and folders to the donation pile, sorted through old calendars and gift bags, and pulled statements, receipts and tax returns from the filing cabinet and put in permanent storage. 

I still have some binders (mostly), a cupboard and the file tray on my desk to sort. I think for now I'll leave those on my to-do list. I did make a timeline for the library. I now have ten weeks to tackle that room. The first task will be to organize that mess which is mostly the garage sale pile. I'll need to try not spreading that mess out too far on Thursday as I need the floor space to work out on Friday. I'll need to pull out the stuff that is not for the garage sale, but was maybe in the corner before stuff started getting dumped there. Then I'll consolidate the garage sale stuff in the bins and boxes so it's not spilling out all over.

The library is a bit overwhelming to look at, but I'll just focus on a small piece each week. 

Week 23

 Emptied the coat closet on Thursday around some online events. Put back a few things as I had time. Finished it on Friday. I gathered all the bags into a laundry basket. Since not all of those bags are mine, it will be a family event to decide what's staying. Pulled out a few coats to donate. Flipped all the hangers backwards to see if I can figure out what's not being worn. I put sorting hats and mittens on my to-do list. I'm guessing a lot of those things can go.

Fell a little behind in sorting drawers and binders. Not as much fun when I can't listen to a podcast, but it's hard with paperwork. Can't listen and read at the same time. Need to make sure I do at least 15 minutes a day.

Going to tackle the storage area this week. This is the last big task for the office area. Should I pull everything out and then deal with things or pull something out and deal with it? I think there are a million shoeboxes hiding in there. Thursday may just be the flattening of boxes! Unless something crazy comes up, I should be all done on Saturday. Definitely need to get the library timeline together as I'll have two weeks of March to use. 

Week 22

 The closet is done! I worked on it Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Craft items didn't get sorted, but were corralled. Trixie and I will do a major sort and purge of all the craft items that are currently stored in four different locations. I also saved a variety of boxes to use for the craft items. Any boxes left unused after the sorting will go in recycling. Most of the clutter that came out of the closet and into the office has been taken care of. A few boxes and binders to sort through are still out. I have a list of the boxes, drawers, and binders to work on the rest of this month. Because it's a lot of papers it's hard to listen to a podcast while doing it. I've been setting a timer. I need to complete three or four a week to finish by the end of the month. The bottom file cabinet needs to be at the top of the list as some of those files should be put in the tax tub in the storage area.

I only have Thursday and Friday this week because of Eager Hands. Empty the space on Thursday and refill on Friday? Maybe empty on Wednesday after my chores and shower? There were a couple tax things I needed to look at for Social Security. However, if the space is organized and not overstuffed, I should be able to easily get to it. 

Maybe I should do the coat closet instead since I only have the two days. The following week would give me three days for the storage area. Yes, I think I will do that.

I've been thinking about how to break the library down. If I could finish the office a little early to get a head start on the library, it might be helpful because the Beautiful Home, Beautiful Life summit is coming soon, I think. I don't want to fall behind in the library. It's quite a massive project. Hopefully Doc will be away as it's also very dusty.